Astoundingly good

My first experience with Stegner, definitely not my last. Stunningly well written and superbly narrated.

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Why the sneer?

I have read the book in recent years and turned to audible to enjoy this complex, nuanced story of two intertwined couples over many decades. My experience was detracted by the evident sneer in the narrator’s voice which took sides as to which characters were worthy or less worthy.

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Crossing to safety

Wonderful, three-dimensional characters whom I really cared for and followed their progress through their “life” with great interest. Wallace also paints such exquisite physical landscapes; I’m there;I can see, hear and smell Vermont forests. I’m sorry the novel finished, how did Sally,Larry and Sid cope without tour-de-force Charity?

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A Gem to be Savoured

I bought this after hearing it recommended by all three participants in a recent edition of "A Good Read" and am very glad that I did. It's a simple enough story of two couples played out against the background of mid twentieth century America but cheering in its account of the pleasures and occasional difficulties of friendship and feels emotionally very true. Credit too to the narrator Richard Poe for adding significantly to the pleasures of the book.

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4 people found this helpful

A lesson to aspiring writers

If you could sum up Crossing to Safety in three words, what would they be?

Exquisitely crafted prose

How could the performance have been better?

The reading almost spoiled this beautiful book for me. Not only was it dull and expressionless but they chose a reader whose rough gritty voice would be more suited to a Cormack McCarthy depiction of death and evil than a sensitive novel about peoples' feelings.

Any additional comments?

This novel is so beautifully written I actually copied out some passages just so I could come back and admire them.

Choose this book if you enjoy fine observation of realistic characters, reflection rather than events. You don't need to know what it's about, though you have probably seen a summary saying it's about the relationship between two couples. That doesn't matter. What matters is the way he writes about them. When the couples are about to meet for the first time, the narrator rings the doorbell and devotes half a page of discussion to the meaning of pressing the button. The meeting itself generates a longer essay.

The writing is almost as reflective as Proust and indeed early in the book the narrator says he is going for a walk to do a little recherche du temps perdu. If you like the reflective style (of the two dramatic events in the book, one is described with more reflection than drama and the other he actually skips with the cheeky comment that this isn't an adventure novel) you will find it here in its finest style. To give a good feel for it would make this review overly long but here is a tiny bit from the meeting I mentioned above:

"We wandered into their orderly Newtonian universe a couple of asteroids and they captured us with their gravitational pull and made moons of us and fixed us in orbit around themselves... We felt their friendship as freezing travellers felt a dry room and a fire."

Finally, my favourite passage, in case you happen to remember, is the internal debate about upward mobility (beginning of part 2 chapter 4).

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2 people found this helpful

An undiscovered joy

This book was recommended to me by an American friend. (I’m English). I’d never heard of Wallace Stegner Although I found the ending slightly unresolved. the book as a whole was really satisfying, and the understanding of the complexities of relationships really well documented, along with a brilliantly evocative sense of time and place. I’d highly recommend this even if you think it’s not your usual cup of tea. I normally read crime novels.

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